Gaviria bags in another victory in Vuelta a San Juan

Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) claimed stage 4 of the Vuelta a San Juan, taking his second stage victory and his team’s third in Argentina.

Having dominated the previous two bunch sprints in the Argentinean race, Quick-Step Floors was the big favourite in stage 4, a flat 160-kilometer one, starting and finishing in the town of San Martin. As a result, our squad took the reins in the peloton, and together with the Italian National Team and Trek-Segafredo kept the 13-man breakaway on a leash, making sure the gap doesn’t go too far north of five minutes.

Inside the last 25 kilometers, the peloton really began to chew into the escapees’ advantage, bringing the gap down to around one minute with 10 kilometers left. The finale was a chaotic one, but Quick-Step Floors’ lead-out train lived up to the expectations once more and took the front when it mattered, paving the way for Fernando Gaviria, who out-sprinted Elia Viviani (Italian National Team) and Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani-CSF), thus taking his second victory of the year.

“It was another nice day for us, and the team did a perfect job again. They controlled every single aspect of the race and I was glad to finish off their work and score another victory in San Juan”, said Gaviria, who was asked by the media for the reason behind his celebration gesture. “While in Denia, I lost my bracelet, which was a gift from my girlfriend. To remind me of it and of Valentina, who’s always supporting me, I kiss my wrist every time I win a race.”